José Dirceu, the former chief of staff for Ex-President Lula da Silva, was convicted to 10 years in... [+]
As many Brazilians are still watching incredulously the imprisonments of the principal figures in the Mensalão ("Big Monthly Payment") scandal, the scheme in which public funds were used to buy political support for the then-Lula da Silva government and to pay off debts from election campaigns, one of the biggest questions surrounding the imbroglio is: how much money exactly was diverted into the pockets of corrupt officials and politicians?
According to the investigation initiated in 2005 and carried out by Brazil's Public Ministry, the country's Federal Police and the Brazilian Court of Audit, the huge cash-for-votes case involved some R$ 100 million ($43 million) siphoned from taxpayers' money. No wonder why Brazil's Attorney General Roberto Gurgel called it "the most daring and outrageous corruption scheme and embezzlement of public funds ever seen in Brazil."
And that could just be the tip of the iceberg. A 2010 study by the FIESP (the Federation of Industries of Sao Paulo State, in its acronym in Portuguese), the average annual cost of corruption in Brazil is between 1.38% to 2.3% of the country's total GDP. The World Bank lists Brazil in its database with a GDP of $2.253 trillion as of 2012, while the OECD expects Brazil to grow 2.5% this year.
If the numbers of the FIESP study are to be believed, just in 2013 something between $32 billion and $53.1 billion can be accounted as "corruption money," which, it is important to remember, gets out of circulation that hits growth. To put into perspective, if that money was invested in Brazil's precarious education system, the number of Brazilian students enrolled in elementary school could be improved from its current 34.5 million to 51 million.
Should that money be invested in the public health system, the number of beds available in Brazil's public hospitals could almost double, from 367.397 to 694.409. That same money could house more than 2.9 million Brazilian families, and if invested in sanitation it could reach an additional 23.3 million households that aren't on the public sewer system.
And so it goes on. As for Brazil's infrastructure system, one of the country's Achilles heels, the money diverted from public funds could be used to build 277 new airports in the country, a much needed help considering that it is under scrutiny as it prepares to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics, with both events requiring advances in airport capacity and efficiency.
Sure Brazil has improved its corruption levels -- Transparency International lists the country with a rate of 43 in its list of the most corrupt nations, considering a scale from 0 to 100 in which the countries with less points are the least corrupt ones. To tackle that huge problem, changes in its political system and more transparency in what concerns all funds raised in order to promote candidates, political parties, or policies in elections, reforms in the judicial system and in the way of functioning of the machinery of the state, in the fiscal system and an increase in control of public expenditure.
In other words, a better administered government, and a leaner, less state-dependent country, would be a good start. The Mensalão scandal highlighted all those needs, which are necessary in order to turn Brazil into an easier place for international investors to do business. ("The 'Country Of The Future' is still hostage to its past," as I wrote back in June.)
In the meantime, and while nobody takes control of the situation, Brazilians unfortunately will keep paying the bill for their out-of-control corrupt politicians.
